I quit my job because it made me unhappy. Plain and simple. For my entire life I valued financial stability. After the 2008 financial crisis I was glad that I was in a field where there was always a demand, Accounting. And when I graduated college in 2009, I was offered my first entry level job. I believed that my life was set up through various life stages. Pick a career, study that career, stay in that career and then finally retire. Like many people I gave up on my passions and childhood dreams for something practical and guaranteed. I have said many times that nobody ever wishes to be a CPA when they grow up, it simply is a paycheck.

After nearly 6 years in Corporate America and working in two Metropolitan cities, New York and San Francisco, I decided that I had enough. The year I turned 27 was one of the most exciting, scary, and enlightening times of my life. I moved from my home in New York to California with my then fiance now husband, Justin. I was adjusting to a new environment, new workplace with increased responsibilities, homesickness, planning a wedding and taking part in two others. After a strenuous busy season and travelling every other week for wedding related obligations, I was tired and unhappy. I realized that I didn’t enjoy my career. I didn’t have the passion that I saw in fellow colleagues. I had no desire to become a Partner and I settled for middle management. I became introspective and decided to pursue what made me happy. With the support of my partner, I decided to leave my job. That was the scariest decision of my life. It was a path that I thought had been my only one at the time. In July of 2015 I stepped off that path and started my own.

After our wedding festivities, my husband and I settled into newlywed life. He encouraged me to paint during my free time while trying to figure out what I wanted to do with the rest of my life. Knowing my past experience in the arts and how I loved the process of creating, he brought me to a local art store to buy supplies. Initially, I used the time creating art as a period of Zen. I used it to escape the anxieties that were plaguing me. I could spend hours sitting and painting to then look up and notice how much time had passed. As if in a trance, I would wake up and see what I had created. I would put my hopes into the piece. I would deposit a bit of my soul. And I would see that I had created something solid and real, and this was an accomplishment that I was proud of.

It wasn’t an immediate decision to pursue the life of a “starving artist”. I sort of fell into it. I challenged myself and made myself create things that made me feel uncomfortable. I originally was strictly a portrait artist, then I got inspired by Edward Hopper and started jumping into the world of cityscapes. I experimented with different perspectives and color combinations. I got hooked and thought perhaps, maybe this was my new path. This past year has been scary exciting, putting me into situations that I normally shy away from. I have opened myself up through my paintings and I hope to make my mark in the art world.